When I was little, my mother took me to an amusement park. In the main square, between a fountain and a kiosk with cotton candy, a man stood with balloons surrounded by children. He made animals out of these balls, and the whole area in Gorky Park in Moscow was filled with cheerful exclamations when the kids recognized the strength of a bunny or a dog. This happiness, for a child to receive both a ball and a dog in one, has received a new continuation. Many years later, when this already adult child goes to the gallery and sees there the same balloons in the form of a dog, but like this
This is the same dog from childhood ... an adult falls into children's delight. Now this object can be considered as a good investment. So how did we go this way from children's delight to the subject of investing through an object of art? How would Plato, Baudrillard, Deleuze and I consider this situation?
For Plato, Truth is important, something that is hidden behind the surface. There are many representations and copies of the original meaning. So, in the given example, at first there was a dog and there was a balloon, which over time and progress was transformed first into a dog-balloon, and then into a sculpture with the same plot. But, according to Plato, not all representations reflect the Primary. Thus, Koons' sculpture began to appear as an independent original, since the initial idea of a child’s happiness from a balloon toy is not the same to an idea of a giant art object in the gallery in the form of a dog-balloon. A copy of the original (a good hunter in a pack) was at the stage of taming the wolf by a man and a copy of a bird’s flight by a man, but with each stage, a copy was created even from the next copy, so the original idea was transformed into a simulacrum.
And then Jean Baudrillard could already consider the Koons dog as a product of hyperreality. According to its stages of Image development, our history could be described as follows:
Stage 1. The primitive man noted that the wolf is a good hunter and he can work in a pack, so the man decided to create a copy of this behaviour for his own needs. The bird’s flight ability is also embodied in the balloon of the Montgolfier brothers, and then this embodiment was transformed by people for entertainment and joy, for a greater profit.
Stage 2. Then progress led us to the class of functional analogies and we got a dog-balloon. A dog and a balloon for a child on a scale of joy are approaching their apogee, therefore, a society driven by pleasure and consumption combined these two joys for a child. And profit-oriented adults have received an additional item for earning.
Stage 3. Simulacra. A sculpture of a balloon dog appeared. This object no longer claims to be a copy of the first original, but it appears as the original and carries its idea and meaning. But, it’s important to note, without prehistory, without the so-called original, the appearance of simulacra would not have been possible.
Deleuze, on the other hand, identifies simulacra as the basis. Following this logic, Koons sculpture was created in the image and likeness of that balloon in the form of a dog from an amusement park for children. But there is no similarity, it is lost, because the physical embodiment is different, it is not rubber, but metal, it is a huge hulk and not air in a limited volume. All that remains is the image of this dog and the balloon. Here we need to abandon any similarities and accept this as a starting point. Deleuze wants to turn the Platonic theory upside down, so for him, the ideas of a copy of a wolf, a copy of a bird’s flight, then imitation of the joy of a child with a live dog are not at the beginning of the discourse. These Ideas are not things. Therefore, any implementation of these non-material ideas is unique.
Now, when I wonder what simulacra is based on the example of Koons artwork, I will most likely answer this way: life itself, its course, our experience contain repetition and copy. A man begets the same man, the idea of similarity is inherent in the very cycle of creation and movement. Although I share Plato’s approach in that you need to see the root and see the original idea, but at the same time, Baudrillard is logical with his approach to the appearance of simulacra through copy and masking. Deleuze, with his revolutionary approach, brought together all the preceding and set the current as the main object. It is important to note here that we are not separable from our experience, our consciousness will not allow us to free ourselves from accumulated knowledge. Therefore, when that child from the amusement park today stands in the gallery in front of a sculpture of a large dog in the form of a balloon, he will rather see this work through the prism of childhood memories. The first thing that will be this is joy and positive, and only after that, a discussion will begin about the endless repetition of this work and the countless (commercial) production of this dog. In an interview, Koons said that this motive was inspired by childhood's memories, which confirms the connection of childhood experience and the creation of a new object based on this experience - simulacra.
Summarizing, for me, the approach in which I can proceed from the essence of simulacra as such is rather closer. There is a sculpture and I like it. I am aware that this is a copy of a toy from childhood and this sculpture is one of the many copies that became an independent image and without such a number of copies it would have a different meaning and idea. Nevertheless, this work as a simulacrum, as an independent object, could not have appeared without previous experience and the original.
Bibliography and references
1. Совет 1: Как оформить квартиру шарами [online] At: https://www.kakprosto.ru/kak-14089-kak-oformit-kvartiru-sharami (Accessed on 14.10.19)
2. Jeff Koons REX [online] At: https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2013/11/15/20/46.jeffkoons.REX.jpg?w968h681 (Accessed on 14.10.19)
3. Волком выть. Фильм «Альфа» как очередная голливудская «Одиссея» [online] At: https://aif.ru/culture/movie/volkom_vyt_film_alfa_kak_ocherednaya_gollivudskaya_odisseya (Accessed on 14.10.19)
4. Montgolfiere_1783 [online] At: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Montgolfiere_1783.jpg (Accessed on 14.10.19)
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